Focus Point - Tax Cuts! Just Not for You

Commentary by Pete du Pont

April 07, 2000

I'm Pete du Pont with the National Center for Policy Analysis. Great news! Tax cuts are here!

Just not for you.

The tax cuts are in the Argentine province of Cordoba. Argentina has a long history of tax increases and big government spending. Public sector debt grew by $66 billion in the past ten years. But the new Governor of Cordoba, Jose Manuel de la Sota began cutting taxes even as the Federal Government was raising them.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, de la Sota cut provincial tax rates by 30 percent and called for an amnesty for taxpayers in arrears. The results were predictable. Province tax revenues jumped more than five percent over a year-ago. Sales tax revenues were up 21 percent. The tax evasion rate, was cut in half.

The International Monetary Fund, typically, called the behavior a "mania" and said it wouldn't work anywhere else. But it always has. Let people keep more of their money, and they'll put it to work. Who knows, it might even work in America.

Those are my ideas, and at the NCPA we know ideas can change the world. I'm Pete du Pont, and I'll see you next time.